Thursday, April 30, 2009

Another grim, outrageous, but not really surprising ruling on the First Amendment from the

US Supreme Court today, which held 5-4 that fleeting or single-word expletives on broadcast television and radio shows could be fined millions of dollars.

A lower U.S. Appeals Court in New York had found the FCC fines "arbitrary and capricious," by Justice Scalia, writing for the Supreme Court majority, reasoned that "the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual meaning."

So? Whatever the psychological wellsprings of its semantic power,

what counts is whether any Federal agency has the right to fine any broadcaster or anyone, any amount of money, for saying the word "f..ck" one or a dozen times,

sotto voce or with trumpets blaring, given that the First Amendment to our Constitution says "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech".

The linguist Scalia and his four similarly minded colleagues on the bench not only are showing utter contempt for the First Amendment,

but are violating their own sacred conservative principle of not "legislating from the bench" with this dangerous ruling.

Salaries from the 2008 Form 990 are filed by the University to the IRS. Clockwise from top left, University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, Academic Vice President Orin Grossman, Executive Vice President Billy Weitzer, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasury William Lucas, head men's basketball coach Ed Cooley and Vice President for Advancement Stephanie Frost.

The year was 2006 and the highest salary that crossed the Fairfield University payroll, other than University President Jeffrey von Arx, who returns his salary to the Jesuits, was then Vice President of Advancement George Diffley's $187,200.

Flash forward to 2008 and the story is a much more lucrative one. Among the same category of the five highest paid employees, there is just one employee in the "top five" category that is making under $200,000, Vice President of Information Services James Estrada's $198,720.

"It's frustrating to see administrators receive six figure salaries while current Fairfield students and graduating high school seniors and their families are struggling to make ends meet and finance their educational careers," said business major Elyse Nye '10.

To that end, Executive Vice President Billy Weitzer said that Fairfield employees, unlike past years, will not be receiving pay raises this year. Between data filed in public information for the years 2006 through 2008, von Arx has seen his salary compensation increase from $210,000 to $260,000 in 2007 and up to $282,000 in '08, though all of it is returned to the Jesuits.

Weitzer, meanwhile, who has been at Fairfield for two years after making the move from Wesleyan University, saw his salary increase by nearly 60 percent between 2007 and 2008 from $188,167 to $247,000. Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Bill Lucas, whose earnings have increased from $190,000 in 2006 to $250,470 in 2008 cautioned that numbers that impressive typically indicate that the employee arrived at Fairfield mid-way through the year.

"The first year [Weitzer] came in November to my recollection," Lucas said.

Although no increases will be taking place this year, Weitzer said he recognizes his fortune in a time when others are finding themselves in misfortune.

"I recognize that I am in a very fortunate financial situation, I've worked hard to achieve what I've achieved but lots of people work hard to achieve things," said Weitzer.

Weitzer noted that all salaries are dictated by the market, a sentiment shared by Lucas.

"It's complicated you know, it's basically controlled by external forces-marketplace, what ittakes to hire and retain good people, what the skills sets are, and what their experience is," Lucas said.

"What comes out at one end is a number but what goes into forming that number is quite extensive," Lucas added.

FUSA President Jeff Seiser believes that the responsibility administrators are given to keep Fairfield a top notch school is deserving of the earnings they make.

"For people to make upwards of $250,000 comes with great responsibility as they must produce and provide the best product to earn the high salary. If Fairfield is able to provide top flight programs and able to attract the best administrators by offering high salaries to administrators, then it is worth it," Seiser said.

Weitzer also said that most salaries are set to the industry standard.

Vice President for Information Systems James Estrada, the fifth-highest paid employee, agreed.

"There are these built-in market discrepancies that indicates where people fall," Estrada said.

He added that while his peers at larger schools make more than he does, he recognizes that those at smaller schools also make less.

Some student though are upset with the high salaries.

"I think Fairfield is like many other private universities and colleges with that one track money machine mindset," Nye said. "Every college is a business and businesses need to see profits in order to maintain a certain standard of excellence," she said.

An excellence that make some question if Men's Basketball Head Coach Ed Cooley should really be earning the $224,695 in salary compensation that he does, particularly when other teams and programs are not so fortunate.

"We made a decision at this school to have Division I sports, that there is value to that — not just for the student athletes themselves but for the institution as a whole and if your going to be apart of that structure your going to have a basketball coach that makes that kind of money," said Weitzer.

Seiser agreed, noting that he thinks "in order to compete in NCAA Division I basketball it requires a university to pay a high salary to attract a head coach. As long as Fairfield continues to strive to excel in Division I basketball it needs to offer high salaries to the head coach."

MAAC rival Loyola paid head men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos $228,667 in 2007 while a dean at the school was the only other employee making over $200,000.

As far as the struggling economy and next year's tuition increase, Weitzer says officials have done all they can.

"It's a balancing act," he said. "I think it would have been irresponsible for us if we raised tuition at the levels that we have raised it in the past, but I also don't think it would have been responsible of us to not raise tuition and to have to cut essential services that make Fairfield the place that it is."

Grossman says the interesting position Fairfield finds itself in is the push-pull effect between current students' concern over tuition and prospective students' concern over amenities.

"There's a general pressure to try to keep tuition as low as possible, naturally, but there's a more specific pressure to have a lot of enhancements that people will come and say ' do you have this, do you have this?,'" Grossman said.

Weitzer said that the administrators care about cost of Fairfield and they are trying to keep the costs reasonable.

"It's not matter of controversy — the cost of education, we all care about it," Weitzer said. "Part of my job is to keep that cost fair and reasonable. Obviously, you know, my salary and everybody's salary here goes up against that but I don't think it's controversial. We're not here saying 'how much money can we squeeze out of those students.' We really do care about the costs."

The object of this Confraternity is to honour the Divine Heart of Jesus; to render Him love for love; to thank Him for all His mercies and favours, especially for the institution of the Blessed Eucharist; and to make Him reparation for the coldness and ingratitude with which His infinite charitv is repaid by the generality of Christians.

" It is this I feel more than all I suffered in my Passion", our Lord said to the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque. " If men would only return my love, I would count all I have done for them as nothing; but, instead of that, I receive from them, for the most part, only coldness and ingratitude. Do thou, at least, atone for their ungratefulness as far as thou art able"

. The spirit of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus may be gathered from these words of our Lord. It is two-fold: First, to make the love of that Sacred Heart for us the subject of frequent and affectionate meditation, and to aim at making a return of love for such infinite love. Secondly, to mourn over and to endeavour to make atonement for the many insults and outrages to which He was subjected during his mortal life, and which, unhappily, He still so frequently meets with, especially in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

A special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is intimately connected with that to the Sacred Heart: 1. Because such is the evident intention of our Blessed Lord as evidenced in the circumstances under which He instituted the devotion of the Sacred Heart. 2. Because the Sacred Heart of Jesus is really present, along with His Soul and Divinity, in the Most Holy Sacrament. 3. Because His Sacramental Presence on our altars is most evident proof of that intense love for us with which His Most Sacred Heart is filled. 4. Because, as our Blessed Lord nowhere meets with more neglect and insult than in this very sacrament of His love, so, therefore, should the Blessed Eucharist be the special object towards which the members of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart should direct their acts of reparation and atonement.

Indulgences.

Granted in perpetuity by the Sovereign Pontiffs, Pius VII., Leo XII., and Gregory XVI., to the members of the Pious Union of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, canonically erected in Rome, in the church of Sta. JVJaria della Pace, and which, by a Brief, dated 12th January, 1803, are extended to all other Confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, duly aggregated to the above.*

* The following statement is made on what appears to be reliable authority :—His Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI., by an Indult dated the 26th of June, 1831, granted

1. Plenary, on the day of admission—(7th March, 1801). Usual conditions.

3. Plenary, on the first Friday or first Sunday of each month (15th July, 1803,—7th

July, 1815). Usual conditions.

4. Plenary, on one other day in each month. (15th November, 1802). Usual conditions.

5. Plenary, at the moment of death.—(7th March, 1801).

6. Seven years and seven quarantines on each of the four Sundays preceding the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

7. Finally, an indulgence of sixty days for every pious work performed by members.— (7th March, 1801).

Members, to be entitled to the foregoing Indulgences, are required to recite habitually every day the prayers of the Confraternity, namely, The Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Creed, with the aspiration, " Dearest Heart of

to the Bishops of Ireland the extension of said indulgences to the Sodalities of the Sacred Heart, which had been and shall be erected in their respective dioceses. He extended also to these Sodalities, all the spiritual favours and privileges conferred on the Pioui Associations in Home.

Conservative Catholics, especially, are distressed that an order claiming a special fealty to the Pope should so often include some of the most vehement critics of the church; that what was once the church's first line of defense should now seem to be a fifth column.

Many Catholic parents complain, for example, that their sons attending Jesuit schools are sheltered from neither the drug culture, early sex, political radicalism nor the general youthful antagonism to modern society.

A young St. Louis Jesuit counters: "We no longer exist to give the conservative Catholic a pat on the back."

Link (here) to the 1973 Time Magazine article entitled, The Jesuits' Search For a New Identity

"I am sending you to Rome to study philosophy. You will go to the Angelicum. You have had the Jesuits for eight years. It's time for an antidote."

While I am grateful to the Jesuits for eight years of high school and university education and also for six months in their novitiate, I truly found that the Angelicum was the "user friendly" university .

Left-wing "social" Catholicism falsifies the Gospel and can promote violence, according to Catholic novelist Piers Paul Read's new book.

The Death of a Pope, published in America on May 1 and available in Britain later in the year, intertwines real events with fiction, and is likely to be controversial for its attacks on secularism and liberal Catholicism, especially liberation theology.

Mr Read told the Herald: "The anti-hero is an aid worker, a Basque who was once a Jesuit in Salvador and left to join the guerrillas. He's now an aid worker."

President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a 'totalitarian dungeon'. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary.Link (here)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Let the debate beginBut this book is too thin to tackle the critiques of Vatican II reform, says Alcuin Reid .

The recent publication by a prominent North American academic liturgist, Fr. John Baldovin SJ, of Reforming the Liturgy: A Response to the Critics. It marks a significant stage in the recent disputes over the liturgy: for the first time the modern liturgical establishment which has been "in possession" has found it necessary to engage in dialogue with those who have advanced scholarly critiques of the reforms that followed the Council.

Baldovin's publisher and its journal, Worship, have studiously eschewed such debate. That they now find it necessary is a felicitous sign of the times. The "question of the liturgy" is on the mainstream agenda.

But Gandhi's saying is partially inadequate: Baldovin does not seek a fight.

He wishes to treat the critics with "respect" and he "would not have written this book if [he] had thought that the critics had nothing to offer".

This augurs well for serious, charitable discussion of the vital issues at stake, for the liturgy is the "source and summit" of the entire life of the Church.

However, I am not at all sure that Baldovin has provided a "response" to any or all of the scholars considered: his work is simply too thin to deal with the substantial works it surveys.....

Baldovin honestly admits that the early Church did not celebrate Mass "facing the people" as we do today, though he thinks we should. His commitment to everyday vernacular inclusive language and his opposition to the free use of the older liturgical rites are predictable, though nuanced.

He is opposed to "musical nostalgia" in the liturgy though he would allow chant "from time to time". He wants greater reverence in the reception of Holy Communion, but "without insisting that Communion be received on the tongue" or kneeling.

He is an advocate of the ordinary use of extraordinary ministers in order to respect "the integrity of a particular worshipping assembly". He is a liturgist utterly committed to the modern reforms

“President Obama was last here in this hall in the fall of 2006, just a few short months before he embarked upon one of the most extraordinary campaigns in the history of our republic,” said Georgetown President DeGioia. “Through that process, he captured the imagination and passion of our young people like no candidate in our lifetimes.”

“Mixing up morality and contractual obligations”

University of San Francisco faculty leader threatens Jesuit school with legal action if abortion removed from insurance coverage, says USF “not a Catholic school”

The University of San Francisco, founded by the Jesuits in 1855, is no longer legally a “Catholic” institution and the faith is irrelevant when it comes to whether the school’s health insurance covers abortions, the president of USF’s Faculty Association told Our Sunday Visitor in an interview last week. In an April 23 report by OSV contributing editor Valerie Schmalz, faculty association president Elliot Neaman said that, if USF tries to remove abortion as an insurance benefit, the association would file an unfair labor practice complaint. “Whether abortion involves the killing of a child is ‘not relevant,’” said Neaman, according to the OSV report. “You are mixing up morality and contractual obligations.” Neaman is a professor of history at the university.

“If you work for the Jesuit University of San Francisco, no matter which USF health insurance you choose, it will pay for an abortion, sterilization, artificial contraception and some infertility treatments,” wrote Schmalz. “And that is unlikely to change anytime soon, despite a report here earlier this year.”

Neaman’s observations about the Catholic character of USF directly contradict the university’s “Vision Statement” posted on its website, which describes the school as “a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban University with a global perspective that educates leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world.” To read Schmalz’s full report on Our Sunday Visitor’s website, Click Here.

Monday, April 27, 2009

American Indian school in Omak part of Yakamas' lawsuit American Indian school in Omak part of Yakamas' lawsuit

By Mark MoreyYakima Herald-Republic Posted April 25, 2009 YAKIMA — Yakama tribal members are among those suing a Northwest order of Catholic Jesuits over allegations that they were abused at an Indian boarding school in Okanogan County. The claims were originally raised in a lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court by 18 anonymous plaintiffs, represented by the Tamaki Law Firm of Yakima. That case was dismissed because the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in February filed for bankruptcy because it is facing hundreds of similar claims.

Attorney Blaine Tamaki said he now represents close to 30 claimants who will be submitting requests as creditors in the bankruptcy case. Some of those are members of the Yakama tribe, he said. The original plaintiffs are not named in the federal lawsuit, a move which defense attorneys objected, and Tamaki would not name any of the Yakama claimants.

The Oregon Province covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. Society of Jesus priests, known as Jesuits, staff and manage a variety of schools around the Northwest. The lawsuit filed by Tamaki alleges that priests in the order who were assigned to St. Mary's Mission near Omak were responsible for abuse against the claimants. Most of the alleged activity took place in the 1960s. Tamaki said in a news release that the order had a history of sending pedophile priests to isolated Indian reservations, where they were able to continue their abuses. The St. Mary's school is on the Colville reservation. In public statements, the province has emphasized that the abuse allegations involve only a small percentage of the order's priests. Most of the suspects are dead or elderly.

Because the province has paid millions to cover legal claims by alleged victims, bankruptcy reorganization is the only way to keep the organization viable, according to statements on the provincial Web site.

Tamaki urged any other victims to come forward if they want to join the bankruptcy process. The Oregon court handling the matter is expected to soon establish a deadline for any claims against the province.

A pro-choice White House is already providing new challenges for Washington-area Catholic leaders.

First, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl was asked to comment on the University of Notre Dame's recent controversial decision to give the president an honorary degree. Earlier this week, some Catholics alerted the archdiocese that Vice President Joe Biden was given an award by a pro-choice organization at another Catholic school -- Georgetown University.

On Wednesday, Biden was given an award by Legal Momentum, which was founded as NOW's legal defense group and is a non-profit focused on advancing the rights and education of women and girls - including reproductive freedom. The award was part of an all-day event marking the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, which Biden wrote. The day was co-sponsored by Legal Momentum and Georgetown University Law Center's Journal of Gender and the Law.

Wuerl wrote to the school, said archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs, "expressing concern that it happened and noting the confusion that happens by having an event by entities that are at odds with Catholic teaching." It wasn't clear if Wuerl would have been satisfied if Georgetown had addressed the issue publicly beforehand.

Gibbs noted that the circumstances were very different than those at Notre Dame, where it is the school itself that is honoring Obama. In Biden's case, Georgetown was merely acting as the host. Even so, Wuerl has been known to have moderate responses to these controversies. When asked about the Notre Dame event, which has spurred a small but intense movement of angry Catholics, Wuerl said the school should not have honored Obama but that he was not in favor of rescinding the invite.

Georgetown Law Center issued a statement last night saying the school "is proud of its Catholic and Jesuit identity and its core values of respect for and service to others. As part of its educational mission, the Law Center routinely organizes and hosts conferences about critical legal and policy issues providing for a free exchange of ideas and perspectives. While students and faculty may invite speakers and host events, the views of the speakers are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily reflect the views of Georgetown."

For the first time ever, the Superior-General of Jesuits, Rev. Fr Adolfo Nicolas, will be visiting Nigeria and Ghana , starting tomorrow. As part of his itinerary, which spans three days, Fr. Nicolas, the 'Father- General', as he is fondly called, will be visiting Loyola Jesuit College (LJC) in the Federal Capital Territory , Abuja Principal of Loyola Jesuit College , Rev. Fr. John-Okoria Ibhakewala, said in a statement that, “ we are most honoured to have him with us here at LJC for about two days.” Ibhakewala who said there will be a mass for Fr. Nicolas tomorrow and a picnic with him thereafter, called on parents and friends to join the school in hosting ‘Father-General’.

The statement also said that a dinner in honour of the ‘Father General’ which will have in attendance, amongst others, a member of LJC benefactor will be held in honour of the ‘Father-General’ at the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria inside the residence of the Spanish Ambassador.

The Supreme Head of the Jesuits was born in Palencia , Spain in 1936 and began his theological studies at Sophia Jesuit University in Japan in 1964. He was ordained priest in 1967. As an author, he has written two books in Japanese language. He has also done extensive studies about the challenges facing Christianity in Asia , immigration labourers and refuges among others. Apart from English, he is fluent in Spanish, Japanese and several other European languages.

More than 40 U.S. bishops have publicly decried the University of Notre Dame’s plan to honor President Barack Obama next month, citing a 2004 statement by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

“Even as Notre Dame publicly snubs the Catholic bishops, Georgetown appears to be saying, ‘Me, too!,’” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “Just last week, Georgetown covered the name of Jesus Christ at the request of the White House. Scandal after scandal at Georgetown, including the stunning 2007 law school policy that offers paid internships for students to work at organizations that advocate for abortion rights, has severely compromised its integrity as a Catholic institution.”

Georgetown University Law Center is affiliated with Georgetown University, a Catholic and Jesuit institution.

Vice President Joseph Biden, a professed Roman Catholic, has since the 2008 presidential campaign come under sharp criticism from pro-life advocates, including his hometown Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., for supporting the legal abortion.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Biden "strongly support[s] Roe v. Wade.” Biden was the co-sponsor of the oppressive Freedom of Choice Act in the 102nd and 103rd congresses. He also voted for federal funding of Planned Parenthood and embryonic stem cell research, and against parental notification for minors seeking out-of-state abortions, a ban on abortions at military facilities, and a ban on human cloning.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What about the recruitment and training of married men as priests? Married priests already minister in the Catholic Church, both East and West. Addressing the married clergy of the Eastern Catholic churches, the Second Vatican Council exhorted “all those who have received the priesthood in the married state to persevere in their holy vocation and continue to devote their lives fully and generously to the flock entrusted to their care” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests,” No. 16). That exhortation now applies to the more than 100 former Anglican priests and Lutheran ministers who have entered the Catholic Church, been ordained and now serve in the Latin rite. As we face the challenges of the priest shortage, some of the more than 16,000 permanent deacons in the United States, many of them married, who experience a call to priestly ministry might be called to ordination with a similarly adapted discipline. In addition, the views and desires of some of the more than 25,000 priests who have been laicized (and are now either single or married) should also be heard.

More than 40 years ago, the philosopher Paul Ricoeur coined the phrase ''the symbol gives rise to thought.''

His analysis of religious symbolism demonstrated a crucial link between thinking and expression, both of which are intimately connected to the depth of human experience.

Unlike the ordinary language we use to describe our living, and the more scientific language that gives precision to our knowing, symbols touch the realm of the mysterious: They point to meaning beyond us; they convey the meaningfulness that lies within us....

Because such symbols evoke a meaningfulness that cannot be communicated by other means, they constitute an important way to express not only one's belief but also one's identity. Without such symbols, meaning is lost, and meaningfulness is absent.

Thus, the temporary loss of symbols at Georgetown University gives rise to the thought that an institution's religious character is merely fashionable, able to be covered up for different occasions.

Recently, university officials there chose to conceal from any camera's view the Christogram -- the letters ''IHS'' with a cross extending upward from the center -- that adorns the archway above the dais at which President Obama delivered a speech on economics (a message, ironically, based, in part, on the biblical metaphor of ''the house built upon rock'').

One effect of this cover-up was to provide a ''consistent backdrop'' to the presidential speech; the other was to hide away the religious ''identity'' of the place, for those letters are central to the seal of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic religious order that founded the university.

Which effect was intended, and whose initiative led to the iconoclastic decision, have been matters of debate.

But whether it was sought by the White House or offered by the university, the symbolic message was evident -- nothing religious should be considered alongside political posturing.

Some may brush this aside, as even one Jesuit did when he said it was more about ''camera quality'' and ''communications strategy'' than theology.

Archbishop Alfred Hughes has told Xavier University he will not attend its graduation ceremonies next month because he objects to the university's decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Brazile, the veteran Democratic political strategist who supports abortion rights.

Hughes told Xavier President Norman Francis of his decision by letter in which expressed his disappointment with the university, even as he acknowledged its legacy of education among African Americans.

Hughes also praised Francis personally "for your remarkable record of public service."

In response, a statement from the university said, "From the founding of Xavier 84 years ago, our institution has promoted respect for the dignity, well-being and the protection of life for all persons."

Brazile, a Catholic and a native of Kenner, is a familiar advocate on behalf of Democratic issues, working at the national level in support of Democratic values that include defense of abortion rights and pursuit of embryonic-stem-cell research.

The Catholic church opposes those policies, believing that both take human lives.

She is a familiar television face as a political contributor on CNN and ABC, and writes for Roll Call and Ms. magazines.

After years of growing political experience, Brazile managed Al Gore's unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign, becoming the first black woman to hold such a position. She is the founder of Brazile and Associates, a consulting, grass roots advocacy and training firm a few blocks from the White House.

"As life long devoted Catholic, I am sorry the archbishop will boycott this celebration of the class of 2009," Brazile said by email. "I will remain faithful to the Catholic Church and my Christian faith which keeps me grounded."

Brazile will give the commencement address in addition to receiving an honorary degree. Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker will also receive an honorary degree.

Xavier spokesman Warren Bell said Francis makes the selection and invites the speaker, working off a list of preferences prepared by student leaders.

Francis said Hughes' decision "surprised me a little."

"I make the best decisions possible. I think we've been as Christian and Catholic as we can be."

Xavier's decision to honor her breaks with Catholic bishops' determination to present a consistent front of opposition to abortion rights.

In a 2004 document "Catholics in Political Life," they urged that Catholic institutions, including independent Catholic colleges like Xavier, "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. The should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

Three years ago, Xavier awarded an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, then an Illinois senator and rising Democratic star with a record for supporting abortion rights, without objection from Hughes.

But archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said Hughes had not been aware of the honor to Obama, which came while the bishops' common pledge was in force.

As a third woman came forward claiming that she had borne the child of former bishop now President Fernand Lugo, another Paraguayan (Opus Dei)Bishop Rogelio Livieres said the Church had known for years about Lugo's misconduct but had kept silent.

"At the time, the monsignor gave me his support but took advantage of my great need and induced me to have relations," she was quoted as saying in local media. "In a year, I got pregnant by him. A midwife delivered my baby in the same house where I was living, whose rent he paid."

President Lugo may even have fathered other children, whilst still a bishop, but even one case of involvement with a much younger woman diminishes the reputation of a man who presented himself as the symbol of a new wave of hope and renewal in Paraguayan politics.

Lugo has shown that he’s as full of machismo as the average male in his country, and as ready to exploit his popularity and prestige.

My experience as an educator is mainly related to my work in a Hungarian Catholic school after the fall of communist regime. I started teaching theology and philosophy in a brand new Jesuit middle and high school in 1998, and also for some years I worked in administration as the director of the boarding residence. As an educator responsible for boarding students, I had to look at our new educational organization from a particular perspective; namely, I had to perceive our school as a community based on mutual respect and collaboration. For instance, an important number of boarding children were aged from 11 to 14 years old, and first and foremost they needed a caring and safe community. Therefore, as educators, we were permanently challenged to re-create our role just from the beginning. Link (here)

Friday, April 24, 2009

Vasta, a remote village of Arcadia is best known for its "miracle church" of Saint Theodora, who was an 11th century Byzantine citizen. When the area was raided by bandits, Theodora was determined to help defend her village, but as a woman it was unthinkable to do so. Not to be deterred, Theodora secretly disguised herself as a male soldier in order to join the defense. Unfortunately, Theodora did not survive, and as she lay dying she uttered the following words:

''"Let my body become a church My blood a river My hair the forest"''

The villagers, moved by her bravery and her untimely demise, built a church at the site of her grave. Legend has it that a local river re-routed to pass directly under the church. Eventually, trees sprouted from the roof of the church, the roots of which are not visible under the roof and neither inside or outside the church. Currently the church has 17 enormous holly and maple trees growing on its roof. Most of them are taller than 30 meters. Saint (Aghia) Theodora, has become one of the most important saints of the Greek Orthodox Church and the site has become important for religious pilgrims and site-seers alike.

Arcadia, Megalopolis Municipality Vasta, a village of the Megalopolis Municipality, in the Arcadia prefecture of Peloponnesos, Greece. Population 147 in 2001

The first Jesuit priest, father Michel Albertini arrived in Tinos in 1661 and settled in Xombourgo. The Jesuits continued to live there until 1837 and later they moved to the village of Loutra. The last Jesuit to leave Xombourgo was Father Kutsinzki who left in 1846.

The Jesuit Catholic Monastery is located in Loutra, a small but beautiful village with a rich history. Monastery in Tinos is a striking 17th Century building and also houses an excellent folkloric museum displaying old manuscripts, maps as well as implements for making olive oil and wine.Link (here)

The Wal-Mart store opened in 2006 after Kate Quarrie council's decision to proceed in 2003.

The resulting dispute outlasted several rounds at the Ontario Municipal Board and a ruling that the store would infringe on the contemplative tranquility enjoyed by an adjacent Jesuit retreat center, Loyola House. That issue disappeared when the developer reached a settlement with the center and promised to build a large earthen berm between it and the development.

Since then, the people voted with their feet by making the Wal-Mart one of the most successful stores in the province.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Jesuits to open private archives of US priest who was WWII expert By Simon CaldwellCatholic News Service LONDON (CNS) -- The leader of the Society of Jesus has authorized the opening of private documents that could reveal how Pope Pius XII helped to rescue European Jews from the Holocaust. Father Adolfo Nicolas, the superior general of the Jesuits, is allowing historians to examine, catalog and digitally record evidence collected by U.S. Jesuit Father Robert Graham(here) and (here), who until his death in 1997 was widely considered the Vatican's leading expert on the role of the wartime pontiff. Father Graham's private collection comprises more than 25,000 pages of testimony and documents specifically dealing with the actions of the pope and the Vatican in confronting Nazism and helping the Jewish people during World War II. The U.S.-based Pave the Way Foundation, working with the Jesuits in Rome, was granted exclusive access to the documents after Father Nicolas was approached by Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, the relator, or chief investigator, of Pope Pius' sainthood cause. Researchers intend to publicize the most significant discoveries by posting them on the Internet. They expect to begin their digitization work in the summer and complete it within a month. One source familiar with the project said the collection included some "very promising" documents. However, the source said that once the documents are digitized they need to be studied and evaluated. "How to match them up and certify and corroborate everything in there -- that's the important task ahead," the source said. Gary Krupp, the Jewish president of the Pave the Way Foundation, which is committed to furthering peace by working to remove nontheological obstacles between religions, said in an April 18 interview with Catholic News Service that he was "very, very excited" about the project. He said the Father Graham collection contained photocopies of documents sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives that would not otherwise be made public until 2013 at the earliest. "These contain many of the original documents never before publicized which will now be publicized," Krupp said during a visit to London."The significance of it is that it's as though the Vatican archives have opened as of today," he added. He said that one possible result of the project would be that resistance by some Jews to the possible beatification of Pope Pius would diminish as evidence of his efforts to save lives was made public, though the evidence would not influence the progress of the cause itself. The digitization of the collection also would relieve pressure on Pope Benedict XVI to open the wartime archives to historians who were still undecided about the role of Pope Pius, Krupp said. Pope Benedict has authorized the opening of the Vatican archives up to 1939, but it will take at least four more years before the wartime archives can be cataloged. Father Graham emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of Pope Pius after 1964, when Pope Paul VI appointed the Jesuit to a commission to rebut allegations made by Rolf Hochhuth, a German, in his 1963 play, "The Deputy." Hochhuth alleged that the wartime pope was a self-interested coward who was silent and inactive during the Holocaust. Father Graham joined three other Jesuit historians in scouring Vatican archives for evidence to show the truth about the pope's conduct. The historians published a total of 12 volumes of evidence in the 16 years up to 1981 under the title "Acts and Documents of the Holy See Relating to the Second World War." Although the volumes "decisively established the falsehood of Hochhuth's specific allegations," according to Irish historian Eamon Duffy, the claims continued to inspire further attacks on the reputation of Pope Pius, a man who had previously been credited by Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide with helping to save as many as 850,000 Jewish lives. Father Gumpel told CNS in an April 20 telephone interview from Rome that Father Graham continued to study Pope Pius and write about him long after the work of the commission had come to an end. When Father Graham fell ill in 1996 he left Rome to return to California, taking with him his vast personal archives. Father Gumpel said that the collection was sent back to the Jesuits in Rome two years ago as a result of a misunderstanding. He said he had written to the California province of the Society of Jesus requesting just two documents, but a chest containing the private archives of Father Graham was shipped to him instead, along with a bill for $1,800."There is an enormous mass of documents which are in total disorder," he said. "I can't tell you exactly what is in there. This will be found out in the summer." He added: "I expect to find in this material some of his own manuscripts ... published or not published."

One of its native sons, Ira Einhorn, was a co-founder of the environmentalist jubilee. But Mr. Einhorn has another line on his resume. In addition to being a environmental guru, and founder of Earth Day he is also the Unicorn Killer. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Einhorn dated a Bryn Mawr College graduate by the name of Holly Maddux. When the affair ended in 1977, Mr. Einhorn went into a jealous rage and murdered her. Ira Einhorn was arrested for murder March 28, 1979, the day the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident occurred. Ira Einhorn, environmentalist, was charged with murder during the same period as one of the greatest environmental accidents in United States history.

In the midst of this age of transition and adventure, in 1491, was born Inigo Loyola (St. Ignatius Loyola), the youngest son of a noble family of Guipuzcoa, in the Basque provinces of the kingdom of Castile. His father, Don Bertran Yafiez de Ofiez y Loyola, was like other nobles of his time, a master in his own domain; as he was within striking distance of Navarre, the quarrels connected with that province could not but have affected him. There was a large family of thirteen children; the brothers of Inigo, eight in number, all followed the career of arms. At first it seems to have been thought that the youngest, according to a custom not too uncommon, might find for himself a career in the Church. But he soon rebelled; and instead was entrusted to the care of Juan Velasquez de Cuellar, a friend of the Loyola family, and an official of the Royal Treasury under Ferdinand and Isabella. This friend had undertaken to make a career for the boy; obviously therefore it was not for military affairs but affairs of state that from the first he destined and trained.

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.